At the February 8, 2023, NoHo Neighborhood Council (NC) General Board meeting, the Council heard a presentation from Grubb Properties, the development company who now owns the lot at 5240 N Lankershim Blvd, currently the site of the Laemmle Theatre NoHo 7. This is the third revision of the presentation the group has brought in front of our public meetings.
In October of 2022, the NoHo NC Planning, Land Use, & Transportation (PLUT) Committee and our stakeholders heard the first version of this presentation. While the proposal had some highlights (affordable housing, parking for cars and bikes, space to feature local muralists, etc), it was ultimately unclear if the Laemmle family was being forced out of business or not. NoHo Neighborhood Council members also made the case that space for local artists should not just be limited to the side of buildings, and requested the developer investigate reserving space for the arts in the 3000 square foot retail space at the ground floor of the proposed building. After hearing passionate feedback from the NoHo community, the PLUT Committee voted unanimously against supporting the new development and invited the developers to return once they addressed the concerns that arose.
In November of 2022, the NoHo Neighborhood Council received a letter from Mr. Laemmle. The letter added necessary missing context to the situation and made three things clear:
The Laemmle family had to sell due to the pandemic.
No other Theater operators were interested in purchasing the property.
Grubb Properties has been a favorable landlord.
Please find the full letter below to review as you see fit:
In January of 2023, Grubb Properties returned to the PLUT Committee with an updated presentation for the project. In addition to reviewing the points of the letter, they also agreed to one of NoHo NC’s requests: the proposed property would reserve 1500 square feet for arts uses. While at this stage, it cannot be confirmed what kind of art will fill this space, we believe preserving a dedicated arts use at this location is a win for the arts community and NoHo as a whole. The NoHo NC shared saddened feelings at the future loss of the Laemmle with stakeholders that joined for this meeting, and voted unanimously to move the presentation to the General Board for review.
On January 24, 2023, LA City Planning held a hearing for the project proposal, which they agreed to delay until after the NoHo NC General Board met to review with stakeholders.
On February 8, 2023, NoHo NC held our recurring General Board Meeting and heard from Grubb Properties. The NoHo NC heard from stakeholders as well, and the final vote came to 13 Yes and 1 No. After careful consideration and investigation, the Council voted to write a letter of support for DIR-2022-6485-TOC-SPR-VHCA, the proposal for the property at 5240 N Lankershim Blvd.
The rescheduled LA City Planning meeting will be held on February 28, 2023, at 3:00PM. All are welcome to attend to hear the proceedings. Learn more at planning4la.org/hearings
Options to Participate:
By phone: 669-900-9128
When prompted, enter the Meeting ID: 890 6896 7012 #
With a PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, or Android, click on this URL: https://planning-lacity-org.zoom.us/j/89068967012
Enter Meeting ID: 89068967012 and Passcode: 628811
We are deeply saddened by the loss of the Laemmle Theater. The NoHo NC remains committed to finding ways to ensure that NoHo remains a friendly place for artists of all mediums and maintains its identity as the NoHo Arts District. We have already been in discussions with the Council District 2 office to see how we can bring another theater to NoHo, so filmmakers have a venue to showcase their work.
Thank you to those of you who took the time to lend your voices to this conversation. Please continue to join us and weigh in on our community. You can find out more about our upcoming events at https://www.nohonc.org/events.